Defining Fear
by Jemisaquea
Summary: Jess Potter was sorted into Hufflepuff much to the chagrin and confusion of the Wizarding World. To survive this year - and all the rest - Jessica must show the world that there's a reason it was H.Hufflepuff was considered the strongest of the 4 founders


Disclaimer:  

            I do NOT own HARRY POTTER, or ANY of the characters IN the series of books about HARRY POTTER or any of the PLOT(S) in the BOOKS about HARRY POTTER.  (or the MOVIES.)

Right then…moving on…

A/N 

        Just as a little aside…

"blablablabla" is spoken dialogue

' blab la bla '  are Jessica's personal thoughts

_Bla__ blab la blaaa  are_ (in this chapter) the Sorting Hat's um… thought-speech.. and anybody but Jessica's thoughts.

Are scene changes and

**#^#^#^#^#^#^# **    are changes in perspective.

****

**Defining Fear**

****

**_~ Don't cry over any one who won't cry over you ~_**

"Madam Pomfrey must come quick-quick!" I could hear somebody making a ruckus out in the front hall about me but I decided to ignore it; the feast wasn't even over yet and there was already some poor little first year in here with a case of the Oberwalps. You'd think that if there was a wildly grinning ghost in front of you holding out a cupcake for you to take that you _wouldn't_ take it. 

'Hmmph.' One of these days I'll catch Peeves in the act, then I'll give him a piece of my mind!

"M-m-m-adaaam P-pomfrey? A-a-m I g-gonna be okay? What's wrong?" the little brown-haired boy lying on the hospital bed asked me.

Looking into the boys eyes I managed to bottle my anger – it wasn't his fault that he was here after all. "Dear, next time you have an urge for a sweet I suggest you go see the house-elves instead of grabbing one that just happens to be dangling in mid-air, yes?"

"Y-yes Madam Pomfrey….."

Anyone that didn't know the Madam would think her flustered, however one should never assume things about which one doesn't know. That is one of the very first lessons you learn around Madam Pomfrey.

**#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#**

As the madam walked out of the back room to go into the front to attend to the growing mayhem developing by the front beds the 1st year, Travis, struggled to speak, to mumble who knows what to her but she didn't even turn around. __

_I try and tell them that speaking is useless for the next couple of hours but do they listen? Nooooooooo, of course not. That would be unthinkable…I suppose it is the thought that counts though._

**#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#**

All thoughts that I may or may not have had at that point were completely lost. At the front of the room I could see a squealing house-elf desperately trying to make it past my attendant at the door yelling, "MADAM POMFREY!!!! QUICK-QUICK!!!!!!"

I just shook my head amusedly, some people were just so eager to see me….

Long, slender, slightly chapped, nails bit down to the quick, her hands didn't look any different did they? Had they suddenly changed since she'd left home and come to Hogwarts? Had somebody hexed her when she wasn't looking?

She'd always thought of them as Gryffindor hands somehow, as if they were the property of the Gryffindor House; that was simply were they belonged. Now she had come to learn that they were in fact _Hufflepuff_hands and not Gryffindor hands at all. 

'Would they look any different if they belonged in Gryffindor? Would they be any better?' I wondered. _How could they be better hands Jess'? Come on, use your head! _I heard my mothers voice saying. I imperceptibly shook my head a little, 'trust mother to put her two cents in, who-knows-how-many-miles away and everything.'

I let a small groan escape my throat and wondered at the irony of my conscience having the two voices of the two most influencial people in my life, Harry Potter and Virginia Weasley-Potter, my parents. Atleast I didn't have Aunt Hermione as a mother… sometimes I really wonder how Marty and Alan can stand hearing her lectures on rules and grades all the time, honestly!

My thoughts were inevitably dragged back to the reason I ended up leaving the Feast in the first place and I knew my eyes had turned a sea green color again like they always did when I was sad.

**FLASHBACK**

_Dumbledore:_

I glanced at the next name and a small twinkle came into my eye. This little lady was sure to cause a stir among the students. Granted, she didn't have a blaring scar on her forehead like her father does but her looks would serve as a sufficient reminder to everyone who she was. 

The real question wasn't if she would cause a stir but rather, why wouldn't she? Her father and his father before him had certainly contributed their fair share of shall we say say…. Mischief… In their years here at Hogwarts.

I felt a sigh well up in my throat - James. It seemed only yesterday that the young Mr. Prongs was roaming these halls with his friends. 

That someone as old as I am allowed to live whilst such bright lives as his are allowed to flicker and die….

Many nights I had stayed up, questioning, always asking the eternal question, why?

I clapped politely as "Poldin, Roy" was sorted into Ravenclaw and waited expectantly for the next name on the 'roster' to be called and the reaction it was sure to bring.

I didn't have to wait long.__

_          "Potter, Jessica."_

          Telling myself to breath I squared my shoulders and strode up to the wooden stool and the old, worn hat sitting perched a-top it at the head of the Great Hall. I had barely managed to tame my wild, red hair into a pony-tail for my first day of school and all the way up to the front of the room all I was aware of was the faint _click _of my shoes as they hit the stone floor and _swish _of my pony-tail as it bobbed up and down against my back.__

I finally reached the Professor standing by the little wooden stool and, without even waiting for instructions I grabbed the hat and sat down. 

***

_Well, well, well… What have we here? A Potter, eh? Been awhile since we've had one of you in the school hasn't it?_

'Um, Hello?' I thought towards the hat.

_Yes, yes, definitely a Potter I see, always so polite those ones! _I thought I heard a hint of a smirk in the hats voice and I could just picture what the expression would actually look like on the hat and was just about to retort when the hat cut me off saying, 

_Ahh__, I see you are eager to find your placement then, no need to dawdle hm?… _The hat mused,_ you are very brave I see, you have an appreciation for the joys in life but you have underlying frustrations…_

Later on I would ponder what it meant that five of my most life changing minutes had been spent with an overly large hat placed primly on my head, the brim starting to slide down over my eyes and towards the tip of my nose. At the moment it was all happening quite quickly and it was all I could do to keep up with the hats train of thought. Sensing that the hat was about to reach some type of conclusion I turned my attention back to the hat just in time to hear; 

_You have a very kind heart my lady and are someone very special. Your friendship and trust will always be readily offered but once misplaced very hard to earn back unless proven worthy._

_Never doubt yourself and remember what I've said, dear Jessica, should you ever seek to question  your place in _HUFFLEPUFF!

**END FLASHBACK**

Getting sorted into Hufflepuff wasn't really a bad thing. It wasn't that I was so upset about. It had been those awful stares I saw after I took the hat off. I just knew that they were all judging me – they didn't even know me!

What right did they have to judge me if I'd only had a decent conversation with say, twenty of the eight hundred students there? None! 

I pressed my lips together in a straight line and I sat up straighter, the hat had warned me that times would be tough, as had my family before I left the house. "_Jess'."_My dad had said to me, _"People may stare at you or treat you differently because of your name. Don't let it get to you, just – go have fun, alright?" _He'd told me, flashing his famous lop-sided grin. At the time I just chalked it up to parental instincts but now I knew differently. 

Off in the distance I could hear the rumble of hundreds of feet as they stood up and got ready to move off towards their dorms – the feast had ended. I knew it would be very bad if I managed to get a detention from Filch on the first day of the term for 'wandering the halls' so I got up quickly and hurried through the twisted corridors of Hogwarts, towards the Great Hall and my new life as a student at Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Needless to say when the poor, distraught house elf which had so frantically dragged a very tired, over-worked and angry Madam Pomfrey down three flights of stairs to the spot where he had last seen the 'thing' which he described as a living statue earlier in the Hospital Wing there was not even the slightest trace of any such thing in any of the hallways near them and the same poor, distraught house elf which had just dragged the tired, over-worked, and angry Madam Pomfrey all the way down to the hall in question became even more so at the thought that maybe - just maybe, he may've finally started to go crazy.

**_A/N:_** Sorry for the really bad ending…. I was planning on writing it differently but, *sigh.* Anyway, that's it for chapter one, hope you liked it! Feel free to share your opinions with me, even if you didn't like it, don't hesitate to tell me. (although, I'd _greatly_ appreciate it if you stated your reasons for disliking it before pressing the 'okay' button…. I find this practice much more productive than flaming because this way I can attempt to incorporate new techniques and ideas into my writing to fix what was wrong) Praise is also welcome, of course! *( : ^ ) party on peeps!

Peace,

       ~Saquea


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